Wednesday, 30 April 2008

IPF president and ex-MIC man Pandithan dies

Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan (pic. left), formerly the vice-president of MIC, passed away after a battle with cancer at KL General Hospital at 8.20am today. He was 68.

His body will be taken back to his home in Serdang at noon today.The funeral will take place on Thursday at 3pm at a venue to be determined.

Pandithan was also formerly Member of Parliament for Tapah and parliamentary secretary to the Trade and Industry Ministry.

He leaves behind his wife Jayashree and 21-year-old son Jeyan, who’s studying medicine in the Ukraine.

Once considered a protege of MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu until they had a falling out in 1988, after which Pandithan was sacked from the party. The two remained political enemies for nearly 20 years, but made up last year during the Ijok by-election.

Pandithan’s renewed friendship with Samy Vellu led to fears that IPF would be dissolved into or merged with MIC. But at a press conference last July, Pandithan declared that IPF would not be resolved (read here) as long as “I am alive.”

From hospital bed last week, Pandithan named his wife Jayashree as his successor in IPF, declaring her president. This has led to some dissent within the party.

Have a Heart: Save IJN

Israel’s assault on Gaza, by air, sea and now land, has killed (at the time of this writing) more than 600 Palestinians, with more than 2,700 injured. Ten Israelis have been killed, three of them Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire. Beyond the deaths and injuries, the people of Gaza are suffering a dire humanitarian crisis that is dismissed by the Israeli government. There is, however, Israeli opposition to the military assault. Read here...

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Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges.
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Why Hamas is NOT the issue

Mohammed, age six, marched with determination to his bedroom, put on a record of the Fatah marching song, picked up a wooden toy rifle and marched out to the balcony. He pointed the rifle to the sky where minutes ago, Israeli planes flew over dropping bombs on Palestinian refugee sites. Mohammed told me he wanted to be a pilot so he could fight Israeli warplanes. “But Mohammed, the Palestinians do not have planes.” “I don’t care, I will fight them whatever way I can.”Was a resistance fighter born this minute or was he a “future terrorist”? (Beirut 1973)

How does one explain the horrific fate that has befallen caged Gaza – a land saturated with rubble and body parts – carpet-bombed by air, invaded by ground, attacked by sea? Put to the test of history, Israeli “explanations” fail the credibility test. continue here---------------------------------------------Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignoredWe've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force. ..Continue here

War on Gaza

Israel's failure to learnBy Nir Rosen (Aljazeera)

When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.To continue read here ...